Production
Toto Forever's director, Roberto F. Canuto, shot the film as a graduation project at the New York Film Academy (NYFA) in Hollywood, but he finished the post-production work after graduation, including adding music by Andrea Centazzo. The film was the first collaboration between the director and the composer, one which was repeated in their next films together - Desire Street and Ni Jing: Thou Shalt Not Steal. Due to limitations in the production process, various scenes in the script were shortened. Of the film's length, the director commented: "Of course, the whole story need to be tell with more depth and time (sic), but we reserve the full development of the plot for the feature script. Here we concentrate on feelings and emotion. For that reason I wanted to develop a plot that displayed a wide range of emotions in a short period of time." [12] Regarding this, the critic Michael D. Klemm notes: "A short film can be like a sketch for a painting and this one begins, appropriately, with rough drawings of the two leads. The emphasis here, undoubtedly, is what the young postman would remember from his abrupt adventure. [13]
The main idea behind the characters is based on cartoon figures from the Japanese yaoi. In the opening and closing credits the film uses sketches that represent the characters of Toto and Mark, bringing an added dimension to the story. Susan Opperman, a South African artist with an MFA in fine arts, created the images, following her own vision of the story.[ citation needed ]
The film was shot in 16mm Kodak film and the principal photography took place in the summer of 2008 in California. Some of the locations were Mulholland Drive, Burbank, California, as well as some isolated roads outside Los Angeles. The post-production was completed in 2010.
Xu Xiaoxi, Roberto F. Canuto's collaborator in the directing ( Desire Street and Ni Jing: Thou Shalt Not Steal ), was director of photography on Toto Forever. The kissing scene between the characters is a key element of the film. According to the Canuto: "I wanted to create a montage for the kissing scene. In order to do so, we decided to break standard time and space in order to create a special tempo that surprises the viewer and suspends the reality of the experience. The kissing scene was difficult to film due to the position of movement in such a tight space. This was key to delivering the right feel and emotion. Kylan and Kjord deliver a moving and touching scene that is also the zenith of the whole story."[ citation needed ]
The main theme of Toto Forever is hope. According to the director, he wanted to: "recreate the moment when the human spirit recovers after a deep tragedy and rediscovers a new faith about life. [14] Emily Dickinson's poem "Hope" was an inspiration for this film. [15] While she faced the tragedy, it was with this painful moments when she has to allowed herself to find "hope" and move on.
As of July 2014, Toto Forever was still being screened at international festivals.
